Review by jeisenberg

Location: Windsor,ON

Cost: $33 per month

Install: about 5 days

Good"100 free LD minutes, visual caller ID, visual call waiting"Bad"Service dependent on internet availability, a few missing call features"Overall "The value proposition isn't what it used to be, but it's still a decent service"

Update (August 2013): It's been a while since my last review of Cogeco's VOIP service, and a lot has changed in the interim. The call plan I referred to in my 2009 review has been priced beyond my means. Since 2011, I have downgraded my service to the local plan plus 100 minutes of long distance. And even that plan has undergone significant price increases since 2011, to the point where I had to negotiate a lower rate to continue using Cogeco's VOIP service. Quality-wise, however, the VOIP service has been rock solid - with phone service only being unavailable during the relatively limited times when the cable service is down.

Update (April 2009): This update is at the request of the wonderful folks who bring you DSLreports. Cogeco VOIP has been the bright spot in a Cogeco bundle that has lost some of its lustre. Call quality is rock steady, and the cable in this area of Windsor rarely suffers serious problems. If I have any gripes, I'd like to see Cogeco offer some sort of loyalty discount (much like insurance companies do). This part of the city offers lots of good alternative carriers, but I'm so impressed with Cogeco's quality, I haven't seen fit to make a big issue of the price I pay. However, with times getting tougher, I may need to start looking for a cheaper bundle.

Update (August 2008): Nothing much to say, actually. Things are still awesome with Cogeco VOIP. Surprisingly few losses of service since my last review. It's one of those services that seems to always be there, so not much to say. The only real reason for this "update" is because I noticed that my avatar no longer indicated that I had a Cogeco VOIP review. I guess it must have expired after a two year absence in updates!

Update (June 24/06): Just had my first major problem with VOIP service. We had a major storm this past Wednesday, and the electrical transformer right behind my house took a direct lightning hit. The transformer had to be replaced, and I noticed that my VOIP service went down during the storm and did not return afterward. I scheduled a service call for today (they had wanted to schedule me for Thursday or Friday, but I was not going to be home), and was out when the tech arrived (missed him by a few minutes). I called Cogeco, and they turned the tech around and he came back within 30 minutes of having left. I needed to have my modem swapped out, which he did in a matter of minutes. My service is back online and I'm tickled pink. Try getting service that quickly from Bell!

I'd been a Bell customer for well over 30 years, including their long distance service. As a long-time customer, they had offered me packages not advertised to the general public. Despite those deals, my long distance service was still costing me between $10 and $30 per month - and I did not subscribe to caller ID.

I waited until the Devonshire Mall location had a working VOIP display before finally committing to the service. Before ordering, I placed several long distance calls directly from the phone in the mall. I booked the appointment on the spot, and was given a four-hour window when the installer would arrive. I elected to keep my existing telephone number, and Cogeco made all the arrangements with Bell to terminate the service at the correct time. It was Cogeco that disconnected the Bell service, so my phones were never "out of service" before the installation.

The installation did not go completely smoothly - with the technician having to do some wiring troubleshooting. However, he stayed until the job was completed, and verified that all my handsets were operational before he left. My cable modem was replaced with a different model that directly ties into my home phone wiring, and is equipped with an 8-hour backup power source. Since I have not yet had an electrical failure, I don't know whether this backup only powers the phone service or the internet connection as well.

With Cogeco VOIP service, I receive call quality that I have to call excellent. Except for two very brief service outages (one coming the day after installation of the service), the service has been rock steady. And all calls within Canada and the continental US are absolutely free of charge.

Soon after installation, I also had an issue with their voicemail. My voicemail box somehow got messed up, and it required a "reboot" of the service (effectively erasing the few messages I already had on file). There have been no troubles at all since then.

When a call is placed, there is sometimes a short (maybe 2 second) period of "echo" on the line. Cogeco says it is a system-wide issue which they are working to resolve. All calls within Canada and the US are dialed with a 10-digit direct number - you don't dial the "1" prefix. In areas that support 7-digit local calling, this works as well.

If you need to call outside North America, Cogeco recommends you purchase a calling card with a toll-free access number, since the VOIP service currently cannot place those calls directly. You also cannot accept collect calls or make calls to pay services (such as 976 or 900 numbers).

The Cogeco website indicates that some call features such as three-way calling may be coming later, though it's not clear whether they will carry an additional charge. I also found Windsor's new "311" service for access to all local government services does not work. However, you can access the very same service by dialing 255-CITY.

All in all, I am extremely satisfied with the service and price. While Vonage seemed to have a lower price, I chose Cogeco because it gave me a single point of responsibility for cable and phone service.

member for 13.6 years, 4008 visits, last login: a few hours agoupdated 1.5 years ago

Review by JimBee

Location: Kingston,ON

Cost: $45 per month

Install: about 5 days

Good"Unlimited long distance! Call display/voicemail/call waiting included"Bad"Random small hiccups, but rarely. Cannot dial europe"Overall "Fantastic phone service especially if you make lots of long distance calls"

My household got Cogeco Voip two years ago and we haven't looked back! All of us are away at school and not having to worry about long distance calls ever is fantastic.

It's been extremely reliable. The modem for our internet also doubles as the phone connection too.

The random hiccups are things like number not being able to be connected, random bleep sounds and sometimes when dialing other people with Cogeco it instantly connects with no ring! Nothing to worry about.

member for 11.9 years, 608 visits, last login: 38 days agoupdated 3.3 years ago

Final update: Cogeco kept raising the price until I got off my duff and looked at alternatives. We're now with voip.ms, saving about $40/month, and will not be looking back. Cable TV is next on the chopping block.

- Keeping our phone number was a pain, as somebody had to be home during regular business hours.- Install was fairly painless- More plans would be nice; we don't use many of the available features and a price break would be nice- Unlimited North American calling is great

Updates; There is still occasional echo on the line, but it's not as noticeable as previous times. There's still only one price tier, but overall I'm still happy to be rid of all Bell services and Cogeco's uptime is great.

member for 11.6 years, 566 visits, last login: 14 days agoupdated 3.5 years ago

My Other Reviews

We have the Cogeco Home Phone Freedom Package and the service works great as long as Cogeco internet is up. The only draw back is the $56 a month price but this will pay for itself depending on long distance usage, keep in mind this is a fully loaded plan with no extra fees. Unlimited North American calling with Voice Mail, Call Display, Call Waiting, Visual Call Waiting and Call Forwarding is justifiable for $55.99 a month when compared with what Bell has to offer.

member for 12 years, 2493 visits, last login: 42 days agoupdated 4.6 years ago

Review by dataiv

Location: Burlington,ON

Cost: $45 per month

Install: about 8 days

Good"Great call quality."Bad"No direct international calling, no way to change settings of features, one price plan."Overall "Good service, but it's time for them to add some more features, and have a better international calling plan."

A new feature on the Cogeco Digital Phone is direct international dialing. At first glance this seems like a welcome new feature. However, the per minute rates are completely nuts and it is obvious that all Cogeco is thinking about is profit, profit, profit - "how can we rip people off some more..." - Given that the cost of the digital phone is already around $55/month, I would have expected reasonable per minute rates - most European countries land line calling should be around 3 to 5 cents/minute and mobile around 25 to 30 cents/minute. This would be competitive (which is what their website says - "competitive international long distance" - HAH!). No, forget it! The average land line per minute price for calling most European countries is 10 cents/minute and mobile ranges from 39 to 69 cents/minute. They are out of their freaking minds! I hope not too many people fall for this. It's completely unacceptable.

Since having the phone service installed just over 3 years ago, the price has gone up significantly. The internet price has also gone up, as well as the cable TV price. Some increases can be expected of course, but this is getting out of hand. I believe now the pricing of the phone is basically the same as we could get for a normal land line again - which always worked. Cogeco's phone has had several days where it doesn't work for half the day because of issues at their main office.

--- September 24, 2007 ---

Still have Cogeco VoIP. Since December 2006, data (modem or fax) calls outside the local exchanges have not worked. Apparently this is "being worked on", but come on, it's been 9 months! So, I would say don't count on data calls working.

Secondly, in my opinion they could have done better than to provide international calling through an external calling card company. This is pretty ridiculous. It took two years to come up with a URL link to an external company, and up until that point, no suggestions at all! Also, the suggested calling card service requires prepayment, rather than billing after calls are made. Rather annoying to have to prepay. There are other companies with similar rates that charge monthly after calls are made, resulting in much less hassle. Come on Cogeco...

Thirdly, the number of features has not changed since the service was launched over two years ago. Many features are still listed as "being launched in the future".

Fourth, if you want to listen to your voicemail remotely from another person's Cogeco phone without calling your own number, good luck. The access numbers recognize the calling number and only ask for a password, not a mailbox number. In my opinion, if an access number is called, as opposed to the usual "22#" for voicemail access, you should always be asked for the mailbox number.

The original review follows:

Had Cogeco VoIP installed on Friday, June 23, 2006. My neighbours have had it for almost one full year now, and they have no complaints, except from the first couple months when they had some problems.

I have a YAK Calling Card that I use for overseas calling, but I am hoping Cogeco adds direct overseas calling soon at good rates, like Mountain Cable appears to have. I think unlimited north america is great, and I do like the fact that I have one point of contact for internet, telephone and television service. It makes it easy to get action quickly.

Using a fax machine for faxing on Cogeco's VoIP service works fine. Dialing up to a modem works, but not all that well. There seems to be a lot of reported latency over Cogeco's VoIP for this type of call ... Not that I do it that often, I was honestly just testing to see if it worked, but perhaps someone would want to know. If I dial up to the Queen's University modem pool, with the Bell line the first hop latency was about 160ms. With Cogeco's VoIP it is about 400ms.

It's been 2 days now and no problems. I hope it stays that way.

member for 13 years, 4992 visits, last login: a few hours agoupdated 5.6 years ago

I have cogeco's voip service since december 2007 and the service is awesome.The connection and voice quality are excellent.

All i like is the unlimited calling to USA/Canada. Is sometimes useful in some circonstances.

They offer good features with no charge,but they could have more. They could work better for international calling. You know i have most of my family living in France and is not so much funny to always recharge your "prepaid" card through a call center.

BTW. This service worths your money. I highly recommend that service.

===================Update for June 2nd 2008It seems that call display blocking doesn't fully work with tool-free numbers.

member for 7.5 years, 194 visits, last login: 4.9 years agoupdated 6.7 years ago